


A Demand for Money

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 21:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16436750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: A man is getting a demand for money - with no idea why





	A Demand for Money

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Seninel Thursday prompt 'fork'

A Demand for Money

by Bluewolf

"Fork out the money! Or I'll find a way to take it!"

Jim read the note the distraught-looking man handed to him. "What money?" he asked.

"I've been getting threatening letters for a few weeks now," Andrew Smith said. "Ever since I moved into my new apartment. But they've never been signed. Demanding money, as if I owed someone money, but why? And in any case, without a name and address, even if I wanted to who would I sent it to, and where? And how much? whoever this is just says 'the money'. As if... as if I should know about it. But I don't!"

"So you have no idea - ?"

"All I know... The man who had the apartment I'm in left suddenly, and without warning. He sent the keys to the landlord with a note saying he was leaving Cascade. I thought I was lucky when I got access to the apartment the day I went to enquire about getting one.

"Now I'm wondering if these letters were meant for the guy who left. His name was Smith, too; it's a really common name, unfortunately."

"What did you do with the earlier letters?"

"Dumped them because I didn't know what the hell they were talking about. But my brother was visiting me when I got this one, and he said he thought I should report it. Though what anyone can do, faced with something this... well, obscure... "

"Unfortunately your fingerprints will be all over it - your brother's, too?"

Smith nodded. "Yeah, he took it to read... "

"All right. How often have these notes been coming? Regularly?"

"Once a week."

"All right. The day the next one is due, wear gloves when you open your mail. Phone me immediately when it comes.

"I don't know if I'll be able to do anything, given the lack of a signature or any real clue as to what it's about, but if we can get fingerprints off it, that might help."

***

The next note said simply, "You think I'm bluffing? The court gave it to me. I WANT MY MONEY!" Andrew Smith phoned Jim, who went to see him.

Jim read the note and frowned. 'The court gave it to me.' "Okay... I have an idea. Leave this with me."

Taking the note, he left the apartment and went to see Beverly Sanchez.

She read the note, and looked up. "This... "

"Looks like a demand for something like unpaid alimony. But the man getting these notes - Andrew Smith - hasn't been long in his apartment - and the guy who lived there before him had the same second name. We don't have a first name."

Beverly turned to her computer, and hit a key. Then she hit another. And another. She began to scroll down the page.

"What's the address?"

Jim told her; she nodded and scrolled on. "Ah - this seems to be it. Thomas Smith. Divorced ten months ago; ordered to pay alimony and child maintenance to his ex-wife, a total of $750 a month."

"Could you give me the ex-Mrs. Thomas Smith's address, and I'll go and have a word with her."

"In light of that note... yes. Don't go alone - she sounds dangerous."

"I'll have Blair with me, but I'll take Megan Connor too. If the woman needs to be restrained Megan is the one to do it. Another woman, so she can't scream 'sexual assault' if she has to be forcibly restrained."

***

But in the event, ex-Mrs. Smith proved to be more reasonable that they had expected. "That bastard!" she exclaimed. "I don't suppose we've got any hope of tracking him down either."

"Probably not," Blair agreed, "but from the sound of him you're well rid of him, even if you are left financially handicapped."

"I never wanted the money for myself," she said. "I planned on banking it all for Tessa - she would get it when she was eighteen." She hesitated "Please - give my apologies to the man who got the apartment after Tom left. I had no idea..."

"Will do," Jim said.

He went back to see Andrew Smith, who grimaced when he heard the story. "What makes some men behave like that?" he muttered.

"Good question," Jim replied. "I can see someone being annoyed at having pay alimony if he was the innocent party, but at least some of the money involved was for child maintenance and - well - I've no sympathy with a guy who refuses to pay that."

Andrew Smith nodded his agreement. "The number of kids who suffer when their parents break up... "

"I know," Jim said. "Well, you shouldn't get any further demands for money from this woman. But if you do, let me know."

"Thanks."

But he never got any more notes demanding money; and when Jim went again to speak to the ex-Mrs. Smith two weeks later, he found that she, too, had moved away.

"You did all you could," Blair murmured as they drove back to the loft.

"I know," Jim replied. "I just hope she and her daughter are fine, wherever she went."

And Blair could only nod his agreement.

 

 


End file.
